Headlines

In a related story, Bloomberg News reported that Venezuela is set to pump the least oil in almost three decades, just when it needs petrodollars the most. Output is expected to slump to 1.84 million barrels a day next year, the lowest compared with official government data since 1989, according to a survey with four analysts compiled by Bloomberg. Rig counts hit a 14-year low in October, as drilling companies including Schlumberger Ltd. reduce their exposure in the nation due to unpaid bills. Owner of crude reserves larger than Saudi Arabia’s, Venezuela is teetering on the brink of default.

Companies in one of Europe’s fastest-growing industries depend on an unsustainable business model, according to some analysts and investors, with one hedge fund going as far as calling their stock worthless, Bloomberg News reported. Arrow Global Group Plc, Intrum Justitia AB and Lowell Group Ltd., which buy overdue debt such as cellphone and credit-card bills, are funding their purchases with borrowed money instead of earnings, said Bybrook Capital, a $1.4 billion hedge fund that’s betting against them.

Redx Pharma has returned to the land of the living. Last week, shares in the biotech group were reinstated on London’s junior market after its administrators packed their bags and quit Redx’s offices in Alderley Edge, the Financial Times reported. Hoorah. Not quite. The shares were 32p when they were frozen in May; when Aim lifted the suspension last week, they fell to 19p. That said, not many companies return from the netherworld of insolvency once the wind-up merchants take charge.

The Croatian government survived a parliamentary no-confidence vote early on Saturday that the opposition demanded over the handling of a debt crisis at the country's largest private firm Agrokor, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. In the vote, which followed 12 hours of a parliamentary debate, 59 deputies in the 151-seat parliament were in favor of the removal of the conservative-led cabinet, while 78 were opposed to it.

Toshiba Corp. plans to raise ¥600 billion ($5.3 billion) through a new share offering if a ¥2 trillion deal to sell its chip unit doesn’t get on track to meet an end-of-March deadline, a person familiar with the matter said. The plan fits into Toshiba’s effort to recover from the financial blow it suffered when its U.S. nuclear unit, Westinghouse Electric Co., filed for bankruptcy protection in March, The Wall Street Journal reported. Toshiba’s shareholder equity stood at negative ¥619.8 billion as of Sept.

The law firm representing a bondholder group in debt-laden Brazilian telecoms company Oi SA has asked a court to nullify decisions made by the company’s board, according to a copy of the motion seen by Reuters on Wednesday. The motion by law firms including Pinheiro Neto Advogados, which represents the so-called Ad Hoc Group of Oi Bondholders, asked the court in Rio de Janeiro to suspend appointments the board made on Friday of two members of Oi’s management, Reuters report.

Monarch does not have the right to sell its airport takeoff and landing slots, potentially the most valuable remaining part of the failed airline, a court in London ruled on Wednesday, Reuters reported. In a blow to administrators seeking to recoup money, the High Court rejected Monarch’s claim that it must be allocated slots for summer 2018 and said they will be placed into a pool. “We are disappointed with today’s ruling and will be seeking leave to appeal as a matter of urgency,” Blair Nimmo, partner at KPMG and joint administrator of Monarch, said.

Venezuela is stumbling closer to a full-blown, formal default on its debts, with bondholders reporting that they had yet to receive the full bond payment that was due last Friday and a finance industry body now about to decide whether default insurance should be paid out, the Financial Times reported. Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro last week announced that the country would have to restructure its foreign debt pile, but promised to make one last $1.1bn payment on a bond issued by PDVSA, the state oil company.

In a related story, Bloomberg News reported that Venezuela and Russia have agreed on terms for restructuring about $3 billion of the Latin American country’s debt and the deal will come soon, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said in Moscow. “The Venezuelans have confirmed the terms we’d agreed on, and that’s why the process will move into the concluding phase,” Siluanov told reporters on Wednesday. Russia had offered to reschedule debt payments over two stages, with payments on most of the state loan to be delayed to the second phase, Siluanov said late last month.

For more than two years, the story of whether Noble Group Ltd. will survive or implode has gripped the global commodities industry, Bloomberg News reported. The next chapter gets written on Thursday as the Hong Kong-based trader reports quarterly results after the close of trade in Asia. Another vast loss has been flagged after the profit-warning last month, with Noble Group guiding a range of $1.1 billion to $1.25 billion. At the same time, the company founded decades ago by Richard Elman struck a deal to downsize drastically by offloading its prized oil-trading unit to Vitol Group.